Blood and Ice
by Duke Bonez
Summary: What if Supreme Admiral Aokiji of the Grandline Marine Headquarters decided to follow through on his threat and kill the Straw Hat Pirates before they could grow any more dangerous?Read and find out. Set around manga Chapter 320.


Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Note: This is a fragment; I'll probably go back and touch it up eventually, so that it doesn't start in mid-flashback, and actually makes some sense. I'm posting it now because I'd like some feedback. This came to me very vividly, I saw it happen and sure a few details changed in the writing but I've done my best to show it the way I see it playing out in my mind. This is set around the end of Chapter 320/beginning of Chapter 321 of the One Piece manga (just after the Davy Back Fight), when the Luffy crew faces off against Supreme Admiral Aokiji (Cold Cold Fruit?) who has some beef with Nico Robin. If you don't know what I'm talking about you should be reading the manga instead of fanfiction!

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Unbidden a memory from the past flooded Nami's mind. It had happened nine years ago, she had been eight, just starting out her thieving carrier. Her first attempt...cold, hard Janos, famous for his merciless skill with the knife, had been an unmitigated disaster. She had barely made it out of it alive, with not a Belli to show for it, but with a scar across her belly to remind her of the price of carelessness. That had been two months ago. It had taken her a month to recover and decide on a new quarry. This she was careful. She had been following Travis the Blade, a pirate whose head was worth three million Belli ever since he and his crew had captured the treasure galleon bearing the World Government's tribute, for most of the past month. Despite her new found wariness following him was proving to be remarkably easy—no one paid attention another eight year old urchin in drab gray rags.

Tonight was the night. She had decided that she would make her move tonight in the predawn hours when everyone was asleep. It had been Travis's desire to go carousing that had finally decided her, stiffening her resolve enough to overcome the fear that had gripped her since her brush with death and the Janos's knife. She had followed Travis on his tour of bars on several occasions before and knew that he invariably drunk himself into a stupor and would not stir until long past midday on the following day and when he did even his crew walked lightly around him. Her plan had been simple, follow Travis to make sure that Travis did not suddenly decide to vary his routine, then sneak into his quarters when she was sure he was unconscious with both drink and exhaustion. Once inside it was simplicity itself. She knew where he kept his fortune and more importantly where he kept the key to the small steel-bound chest. It never left his person, but with him drunk and asleep that wouldn't be a problem. What would be a problem happened in the fourth bar they visited.

It was already well into the night when Travis half-sauntered, half-staggered into a bar whose sign solemnly proclaimed it to be the 'Jolly Bear,' Nami following him, slinking through the shadows as only a wiry eight year old can. There was nothing jolly about the bar itself. It was dark, dank and reeked of sweat, sour ale and unwashed bodies. The hours spent drinking had taken their toll on Travis and he stumbled and fell forward grasping the bar to keep upright, knocking over a tankard in the process. The sticky liquid splashed and spilled over the tankard's owner. He was a large man, his broad, massive shoulders setting him apart even in the dark bar surrounded as he was by men who made their living brawling, but beyond his size his features were obscured by a heavy black coat that seemed to cover his bulk from head to toe. Ponderously the man stood and Nami realized that despite his girth he was nearly a head shorter than Travis. A sudden wind chilled Nami and flipped the man's hood away from his face as the more sober of the patrons quickly stumbled out of the bar. The scarred, hairy face revealed in the dim light of the tavern was one Nami had seen on too many wanted posters. It was a face worth twelve million Belli. It was the face of Jhord the Bear, a pirate known to rip his enemies apart like some demented kid tearing wings of flies.

"You spilled my drink," the voice was deep, it rumbled like an earthquake—not so much heard as felt, but even so it was cold, contemptuous. The eyes that stared out that grim face matched it, glaring with cold, open contempt at Travis.

"Here let me get you another." Nami was surprised by Travis's calm, measured tone. Perhaps he wasn't as drunk as she thought. Perhaps he'd also recognized the merciless face for what it was—a promise of death, the face of a giant looking down at the scurrying humans around him and wondering if it wouldn't be easier just to squash them all. Travis leaned over the bar grasping a large bottle of rum and hefting with his right hand. Suddenly he swung it at the Bear's face. Jhord just laughed, cruelty lacing the cold sound, and negligently raised his hand.

Supreme Admiral Aokiji of the Grandline Marine Headquarters snorted, his contempt barely overshadowed by his amusement. So this little pipsqueak thought he could take him. It was laughable, but at least it was amusing, and for the moment frozen as she was Nico Robin could wait. The straw hat's nakama were all retreating back to the ship to thaw themselves as the straw hat had requested. All, he noticed, except for the little girl he'd tossed aside earlier. She was staring at the straw hat, but Aokiji could see that her eyes were unfocused, whatever she was seeing had little to do with the present.

"Mano a mano, eh? Foolish, but if you wish to throw your life away for a woman like that, I'll happily oblige you."

"You hurt Robin," Luffy's voice was flat. Gone was the boisterous enthusiasm, the exuberance that practically made him who he was, in its place was a cold calm that Nami recognized. She had seen it before, on a handful of occasions. It had been there when Captain Kuro had proclaimed that Nakama were worthless, only there to fulfill his plans. She had seen when he had faced off against Arlong and again on Little Garden. It was Luffy at his most dangerous.

"Hurt Robin?" Aokiji chuckled.

"GOMU GOMU PISTOL!"

Supreme Admiral Aokiji was mildly impressed as he swayed out of the way of the fist. Still the kid had defeated Crocodile, one of the most feared Shichibukai. Of course that fear came as much from the man's penchant for cruelty as from his power. Crocodile had been the weakest of the Shichibukai, still it was no mean achievement. Even as he mused Aokiji grabbed the rabidly retracting wrist.

Nami watched in helpless horror as Aokiji froze her captain's fist into a chunk of solid ice. Fear and concern warred in her as the ice began to spread outward toward the elbow. This only lasted instants as Aokiji was forced to release Luffy's and dodge aside to avoid a sandaled foot that ripped through the air where his head had been a moment before at mach one.

"You know this is futile. I will admit you are putting up a valiant effort but you simply cannot win. Do you know what happens to rubber at sub-zero temperatures?"

The whoop of elation that had almost burst from Nami had long since died away as Aokiji continued to dance past Luffy's furious assault, seemingly without effort.

"It shatters. So if I were you I'd be more careful with that hand of yours, it would not take much, not much at all, to damage it beyond any hope of salvation. Really, as amusing as it is I do not see why you throw your life away."

"You will not _touch_ my Nakama again."

Supreme Admiral Aokiji just laughed at the bravado.

"Nico Robin's fate was sealed the moment I caught up to her. She will not escape me again. The only question that remains is whether you will be alive when I take her back to Headquarters."

Aokiji could hear the pirate captain grind his teeth. He wondered if it was from the pain? Or perhaps to keep them from chattering?

"GOMU GOMU..."

Nami watched in mounting horror as Luffy launched himself forward at the Marine Admiral, his right shoulder leading the way, the frozen fist held across his body as if to guard himself from attack, the uninjured left hand stretching back into the horizon. Aokiji sighed as he prepared to dodge again, this was getting boring he would have to end it soon. Nami gasped. Instead of completing his signature move, Luffy allowed his left hand to continue to simply drag behind him as his right fist came forward. Aokiji had to admire the pirate captain. There was no he could dodge the backfist strike rushing at his face, in dodging the pistol punch he had committed himself and now his momentum would do little but add power to the speeding backhand. He had been outmaneuvered. Of course while brilliant the strike was ultimately foolish. He raised his hand to block...

The bottle shattered. Nami watched unable to tear her eyes away as the bottle of rum exploded in a shower of glass and alcohol. Even as he finished swinging the bottle Travis drew the short sword that had given him his name, the two foot blade glistening malevolently in the dancing shadows of the lantern above them. Long before the shower of glass settled, Travis was rushing forward, the broken bottle held in his right hand its jagged edges still dripping rum like blood, his left held low with the sword angled to gut the bear of a man who had dared to insult him. But even as he leapt forward booming laughter drowned out everything. The sudden screaming. The tinkle of shattered glass. The shouting as people rushed pushing and shoving towards the still open door. All was drowned out by the horrible laughter. By all rights no sound that deep should have been able to sound so cold. But it was. It froze the blood in Nami's veins. And she watched in the sudden surety that something had gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Glass and rum slid and bounced off Jhord's heavy black coat like water off a duck's back. With the same negligent movements with which he had blocked the bottle, Jhord met the charge of Travis the Blade. In that moment, it seemed to Nami that time slowed down. She watched as Jhord's hands pushed out, as if in slow motion, forcing Travis's hands apart, far out of alignment. The bear somehow managed to get a hold of both of the taller man's wrists, and even as he began to struggle it was too late. With slow casual movement Jhord began to exert pressure, spreading the arms of his victim apart. Even through his thick coat Nami could make out monstrous muscles bulging and stretching as Jacob was slowly raised off his feet, crucified without a cross. The there was pop and another but that was drowned out by a scream of pure pain. And throughout it all Jhord continued to pull steadily increasing the pressure and worse he continued to laugh. That horrible laugh. It echoed through the nearly bar and drowned out even the screams. And back in dark gloom eight year old Nami threw up as the man she had planned to rob was torn apart. No one deserved to die like that. Not even pirates.

Luffy's fist shattered. Nami felt tears stream from her eyes as a scream so full of pain that it ripped at her soul rose through the brittle air as crystalline chunks of meat fell. Luffy's shattered hand kept going as if of its own volition. It stretched back, and then, suddenly snapped forward.

Aokiji stared at the Straw Hat with wide eyed disbelief as blood fountained from his throat, past the arm that was still lodged completely through it, nearly up to the elbow. The crimson fountain only lasted an instant. Almost immediately the blood started to congeal, and then as suddenly as it started it stopped as the wound froze shut. The Straw Hat had sacrificed his hand for a weapon and a strike. Well Supreme Admiral Aokiji had to give it to him. The jagged, ice sharp stump of a hand had easily ripped through flesh, muscle and bone. If he had realized what was happening he would have been able to fade into the cold becoming fluid like the air itself, able to reform at will, but the strike had come without warning. His spinal cord was severed and he couldn't feel the rest of his body, only stiffening his body with ice and the Straw Hat's arm kept him upright. But there was no way he would allow this pup to win. No way would Nico Robin be allowed to escape justice yet again. The menace had to be ended here, especially with the determination of this pirate. He drew in cold, becoming it focusing it, forming it, condensing it, and gathering more. More. He would leave his stamp upon this fragment of the Grandline. Bring about an ice age. A wind so cold that bones would shatter, and rocks crack and break. Freeze the ocean for miles around. No pirate would escape this island. No one would.

He saw Straw Hat's lips move. He could hear the words, the world was too fuzzy. But he didn't need to. He felt them. One word, so cold that even he couldn't match it.

"No."

It bounced around his mind for a fraction of a second, and then shattered, along with his skull as Luffy's left fist finally connected.

It wasn't until Luffy's 'No.' cut through the scream that Nami realized it was her own. She watched in the same horrified fascination that had gripped her all those years ago as Luffy's left hand sped forward, a sonic boom following behind. She watched Aokiji's head crumple beneath the blow for a moment before his whole body was ripped off Luffy's shattered right arm.


End file.
